TechniSat HD-Vision 32 32in LCD TV - TechniSat HD-Vision 32

Summary

Our Score

6/10

Review Price free/subscription

Not surprisingly for such a ‘catch all’ TV, the HD-Vision 32 also carries two CI slots where you can add subscription cards for some of the satellite or cable channels you might want to receive. Critically, though, these CI slots won’t work with Sky cards, due to Sky’s insistence of marrying its cards to specific Sky boxes. Boo.

With that bombshell, other limitations of the HD-Vision 32 suddenly start to appear. For starters, with no Sky available, the amount of English-language programmes you can pick up plummets. What’s more, you’re really going to have to know your satellites to know where best to point your satellite dish in order to get the best digital and analogue channel choice.

In other words, not only are you going to have to fork out for a satellite dish, but you’re going to have acquire quite a bit of ‘Euro TV’ knowledge to go with it. The HD-Vision 32’s not looking like quite such a convenient, easy way into hundreds of channels now, is it?

These feelings only escalate as you try and use the TV on a day to day basis. The main problem is that the TV’s channel listings system is immensely tedious to navigate due to the sheer number of channels you can end up with. A few aids are offered for organising channels, but you’ll have to put in a fair amount of time to make this work truly effectively – and even then, it’s certainly no match for Sky’s Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).

The set is at least compatible with Freeview’s 7-day EPG, though. And it can download via satellite regularly updated listings from a programme guide compiled by TechniSat itself. But really this all only helps a little with the general sense of befuddlement that we felt throughout our time with the HD-Vision 32.